1,719 research outputs found
Controlling colloidal phase transitions with critical Casimir forces
The critical Casimir effect provides a thermodynamic analogue of the
well-known quantum mechanical Casimir effect. It acts between two surfaces
immersed in a critical binary liquid mixture, and results from the confinement
of concentration fluctuations of the solvent. Unlike the quantum mechanical
effect, the magnitude and range of this attraction can be adjusted with
temperature via the solvent correlation length, thus offering new opportunities
for the assembly of nano and micron-scale structures. Here, we demonstrate the
active assembly control of equilibrium phases using critical Casimir forces. We
guide colloidal particles into analogues of molecular liquid and solid phases
via exquisite control over their interactions. By measuring the critical
Casimir particle pair potential directly from density fluctuations in the
colloidal gas, we obtain insight into liquefaction at small scales: We apply
the Van der Waals model of molecular liquefaction and show that the colloidal
gas-liquid condensation is accurately described by the Van der Waals theory,
even on the scale of a few particles. These results open up new possibilities
in the active assembly control of micro and nanostructures
Electrical observation of a tunable band gap in bilayer graphene nanoribbons at room temperature
We investigate the transport properties of double-gated bilayer graphene
nanoribbons at room temperature. The devices were fabricated using conventional
CMOS-compatible processes. By analyzing the dependence of the resistance at the
charge neutrality point as a function of the electric field applied
perpendicular to the graphene surface, we show that a band gap in the density
of states opens, reaching an effective value of ~sim50 meV. This demonstrates
the potential of bilayer graphene as FET channel material in a conventional
CMOS environment.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Modular space station phase B extension preliminary system design. Volume 2: Operations and crew analyses
All analyses and tradeoffs conducted to establish the MSS operations and crew activities are discussed. The missions and subsystem integrated analyses that were completed to assure compatibility of program elements and consistency with program objectives are presented
Topography of supplementary eye field afferents to frontal eye field in macaque: Implications for mapping between saccade coordinate systems
Two discrete areas in frontal cortex are involved in generating saccadic eye movements—the frontal eye field (FEF) and the supplementary eye field (SEF). Whereas FEF represents saccades in a topographic retinotopic map, recent evidence indicates that saccades may be represented craniotopically in SEF. To further investigate the relationship between these areas, the topographic organization of afferents to FEF from SEF in Macaco mulatto was examined by placing injections of distinct retrograde tracers into different parts of FEF that represented saccades of different amplitudes. Central FEF (lateral area 8A), which represents saccades of intermediate amplitudes, received afferents from a larger portion of SEF than did lateral FEF (area 45), which represents shorter saccades, or medial FEF (medial area 8A), which represents the longest saccades in addition to pinna movements. Moreover, in every case the zone in SEF that innervated lateral FEF (area 45) also projected to medial FEF (area 8A). In one case, a zone in rostral SEF projected to both lateral area 8A from which eye movements were evoked by microstimulation as well as medial area 8A from which pinna movements were elicited by microstimulation. This pattern of afferent convergence and divergence from SEF onto the retinotopic saccade map in FEF is indicative of some sort of map transformation between SEF and FEF. Such a transformation would be necessary to interconnect a topographic craniotopic saccade representation in SEF with a topographic retinotopic saccade representation in FE
Extended Wertheim theory predicts the anomalous chain length distributions of divalent patchy particles under extreme confinement
Colloidal patchy particles with divalent attractive interaction can
self-assemble into linear polymer chains. Their equilibrium properties in 2D
and 3D are well described by Wertheim's thermodynamic perturbation theory which
predicts a well-defined exponentially decaying equilibrium chain length
distribution. In experimental realizations, due to gravity, particles sediment
to the bottom of the suspension forming a monolayer of particles with a
gravitational height smaller than the particle diameter. In accordance with
experiments, an anomalously high monomer concentration is observed in
simulations which is not well understood. To account for this observation, we
interpret the polymerization as taking place in a highly confined quasi-2D
plane and extend the Wertheim thermodynamic perturbation theory by defining
addition reactions constants as functions of the chain length. We derive the
theory, test it on simple square well potentials, and apply it to the
experimental case of synthetic colloidal patchy particles immersed in a binary
liquid mixture that are described by an accurate effective critical Casimir
patchy particle potential. The important interaction parameters entering the
theory are explicitly computed using the integral method in combination with
Monte Carlo sampling. Without any adjustable parameter, the predictions of the
chain length distribution are in excellent agreement with explicit simulations
of self-assembling particles. We discuss generality of the approach, and its
application range.Comment: The following article has been submitted to The Journal of Chemical
Physic
Colloidal aggregation in microgravity by critical Casimir forces
By using the critical Casimir force, we study the attractive strength
dependent aggregation of colloids with and without gravity by means of Near
Field scattering. Significant differences were seen between microgravity and
ground experiments, both in the structure of the formed fractal aggregates as
well as the kinetics of growth. Ground measurements are severely affected by
sedimentation resulting in reaction limited behavior. In microgravity, a purely
diffusive behavior is seen reflected both in the measured fractal dimensions
for the aggregates as well as the power law behavior in the rate of growth.
Formed aggregates become more open as the attractive strength increases.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Dynamics of colloidal aggregation in microgravity by critical Casimir forces
Using the critical Casimir force, we study the attractive-strength dependence
of diffusion-limited colloidal aggregation in microgravity. By means of near
field scattering we measure both the static and dynamic structure factor of the
aggregates as the aggregation process evolves. The simultaneous measurement of
both the static and dynamic structure factor under ideal microgravity
conditions allows us to uniquely determine the ratio of the hydrodynamic and
gyration radius as a function of the fractal dimension of the aggregate,
enabling us to elucidate the internal structure of the aggregates as a function
of the interaction potential. We find that the mass is evenly distributed in
all objects with fractal dimension ranging from 2.55 for a shallow to 1.75 for
the deepest potential.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Excitation-Dependent Photoluminescence from Single-Carbon Dots
Carbon dots (CDs) are carbon-based fluorescent nanoparticles that can exhibit
excitation-dependent photoluminescence (PL) “tunable” throughout the
entire visible range, interesting for optoelectronic and imaging applications.
The mechanism underlying this tunable emission remains largely debated,
most prominently being ascribed to dot-to-dot variations that ultimately lead
to excitation-dependent ensemble properties. Here, single-dot spectroscopy
is used to elucidate the origin of the excitation-dependent PL of CDs.
It is demonstrated that already single CDs exhibit excitation-dependent PL
spectra, similar to those of the CD ensemble. The single dots, produced by a
facile one-step synthesis from chloroform and diethylamine, exhibit emission
spectra with several characteristic peaks differing in emission peak position
and spectral width and shape, indicating the presence of distinct emission
sites on the CDs. Based on previous work, these emission sites are related to
the sp2 subregions in the carbon core, as well as the functional groups on the
surface. These results confirm that it is possible to integrate and engineer different
types of electronic transitions at the nanoscale on a single CD, making
these CDs even more versatile than organic dyes or inorganic quantum dots
and opening up new routes toward light-emission engineering
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